Taxpayer paying almost €1,000 per week to jail Graham Dwyer

It is costing the taxpayer just under €1,000 a week to jail perverted killer Graham Dwyer.

Figures released by the Irish Prison Service (IPS) show that the cost per prison space at the Midlands Prison where Dwyer, aged 43, is serving a life sentence for the murder of Elaine O’Hara, aged 36, totalled €51,837 in 2015.

This works out at €996 per week per prisoner and the figures confirm it cost the IPS €45m to operate the State’s most populated prison where it had an average prison population of 870 in 2015.